Date:         Tue, 16 Feb 1999 17:52:18 -0700
Reply-To:     Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Subject:      Problem with constants
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

A cow-orker came over with a program that was failing to run.
The log looked like this (greatly simplified): 
 
   106  data _null_;
   107     put 'Top'  carol
   108         'Left'alice
   109         'Right'ted
               --------
               200
   110         'Bottom' bob;
   111  run;
 
   ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized.
 
What, he said, is wrong?  They're all valid variables, and line 109 
looks just like line 108, which works as expected.  
 
I came up with a potentially more treacherous, example of the same 
basic coding error (unprintable characters are replaced with commas 
in this listing):
 
   116  data _null_;
   117     retain axis 1 xaxis 0;
   118     put 'BADDOG' axis
   119         'FABCAB'xaxis ;
   120  run;
 
   BADDOG1 ...1
 
The error message in my last example is at least helpful:
 
   138  data _null_;
   139     retain doowop 1 shebop 2 bebop 3;
   140     put 'ShimmyShangy'shebop
   141         'DimyDamy'doowop
               -----------
               200
   142         'BimBam'bebop;
               ---------
               216
   143  run;
 
   ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized.
 
   ERROR 216-185: The use of a BIT string constant is not allowed in
                  this context.
 
And, for my obscure code entry of the day, 
 
   data _null_;
      input @ ('14FEB99'd-037cdx) char $1.;
      put char=;
   cards;
 
which might print "CHAR=4" (but then again, might not; you might get
the "SAS attempted to read past the end of a line" message, or you 
might get an out-of-range message). 
 
   
 
 
 
--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
West Sacramento, California